Low-Cost Airlines’ Product and Labor Market Strategic Choices: Australian Perspectives

Abstract

This paper examines the domestic airline sector in Australia. It discusses the product and labor market strategies of the main Australian low-cost carriers (LCCs). It considers how labor-market strategies in these LCCs have been influenced by the strategic choices that they have adopted in the product market. It also makes some comparisons with LCCs in the United States and Europe. It concludes that these Australian LCCs are moving to adopt some product market characteristics similar to those of legacy carriers. This may have implications for the future recruitment and training of frontline staff, who would be required to provide services to a wider market than previously.